counterintuitive thing i learned moving from a mid-size startup to a top-tier big tech company a few years ago: the imposter syndrome got WORSE, not better.
i thought getting the offer would be the proof. like, they evaluated me, they want me, the loop is closed. it was not closed. it opened wider.
here's what nobody told me:
the comparison pool changes. at my startup i was one of the stronger engineers. at the new company i was surrounded by people who'd built infrastructure at global scale, published ML research, had patents. the raw talent density was different and my brain recalibrated against a completely new reference class immediately.
the work changes too. things that would have been a solo project at my old job were whole teams here. that makes you feel less individually competent even if you're doing exactly the same things.
and the culture of competence signaling. in high-prestige environments people are excellent at APPEARING certain. that gets mistaken for actually being certain. it took me about a year to realize that many of my very confident-sounding colleagues were also making it up about 40% of the time.
i've talked to people who've moved from mid-tier to FAANG, from boutique consulting to MBB, from local firm to Big 4. same story everywhere. the jump to a more prestigious place almost always makes the syndrome spike first, before it levels.
if you just joined somewhere "better" and feel like a fraud: this is predictable. it's the comparison pool shifting on you. give it 6-12 months before you conclude anything about yourself.